The printing press ushered in the birth of the public sphere in the modern state, through the dramatic multiplication and public circulation of texts and ideas. These were the conditions in which emerged a pressing need to create institutional and ideological mechanisms that would help shape public opinion and beliefs. Of course, censorship as such has its roots in Antiquity, but it is only systematically organized on a large scale following the first papal attempts in 1487 to control the circulation of books.